For the second time in 24 hours the Clippers lived on the edge against an immensely beatable team.

And for the second straight day they needed late-game heroics and a heavy dose of Chris Paul to evade harm’s way and pull out a win.

He went right back to work against Detroit, lifting the Clippers out of a six-point hole late in the fourth quarter then carrying them to an 87-83 victory Sunday at Staples Center by scoring nine of their 13 points in overtime.

Paul saved the Clippers from an embarrassing loss against outmanned Houston on Saturday.

If there were any questions remaining why the Clippers traded for Paul last December,the past two days should put them to rest.

He scored 12 of their last 14 points Saturday and came up with two key steals, a block and a jump ball over a player twice his size to beat the Rockets.

Then he came up with two crucial steals, six points and three assists in the fourth quarter Sunday and hoisted the Clippers on his shoulders in the extra period to help pull them away from the Pistons.

In the process he finished one rebound short of a triple-double with 19 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds and helped the Clippers win back-to-back games for the first time since mid-February.

“Just being around this league for a while, at some point it becomes winning time,” Paul said. “It’s when you can’t sit back and watch somebody else do it or worry about what the refs are doing. You just have to be aggressive on both ends of the court.”

Or as Blake Griffin explained: “It’s sad, but it’s almost expected. You just kind of expect him to come down and do this and do that.”

“I betcha they’d rather have somebody that led them to blowouts,” Paul joked.

He was referring to the Clippers’ exasperating habit of playing close games lately, especially against weaker opponents.

As many times as he’s helped save the day recently he hasn’t been able to help them avoid 10 losses over their past 21 games and fall to second place in the Pacific Division.

But one man can only do so much, and the Clippers realize it will take a collective effort to make sure close wins become easy wins at some point … or suffer the consequences if they continue to play with fire.

“The more games you have like this the less chance you have to win,” Griffin said. “And we’ve been fortunate the last two games.”

Griffin added 17 points and 11 rebounds while Randy Foye had 14 points, including two big 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter as the Clippers were teetering.

The second pulled the Clippers within 74-72 with 1:49 remaining. Foye pulled down two key rebounds on missed shots by the Pistons, setting up Griffin’s tip-in layup with 19.2 seconds remaining to tie the score at 74-74.

Detroit had a chance to win it in regulation but Paul stripped the ball from Tayshaun Prince with 0.9 remaining to push it into overtime.

Once there, newly acquired Nick Young came up with a steal and two free throws to put the Clippers ahead 76-74. Paul followed with a jumper, a 3 and another jumper, then fed Foye with an assist to put the Clippers up 85-82.

Paul’s two free throws with 3.4 seconds left put the game away.

“We found a way to win today,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. “I’m proud of the way the guys battled. We didn’t shoot it particularly well again but we found a way.”

Young finished with nine points and two steals in a surprising 28 minutes, 30 seconds of playing time. He didn’t know he’d be playing until 10 a.m. Sunday morning when former Denver forward Nene passed his physical to complete the trade that brought Young to Los Angeles from Washington on Thursday.

But with Mo Williams struggling on a 2-for-10 shooting day and Caron Butler missing 13 of 16 shots, Young was pushed into extra duty and played 11 minutes in the fourth quarter and all five minutes in overtime.

“He did a good job for us getting to the free-throw line and a big steal,” Del Negro said.

Young was ecstatic to contribute.

“It felt great to be out there helping my team win,” Young said. “I’m definitely happy to be here.”

Vincent Bonsignore is an NFL columnist for the Southern California News Group. Having covered the Los Angeles sports scene for more than two decades, Bonsignore has emerged as one of the leading voices on the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, the NFL and NFL relocation.